Easter Sunday

I'd like to share a story with you if I may. It's about my day on Easter Sunday 2008. Now it's important that before I begin telling you the story I tell you how I was feeling. The weekend before I had started to fall Ill and now I had gone through two nights of high fevers and headaches. I'd used up the ship's supply of paracetamol and I was in the market for sleep. Around 10 days beforehand Andrew informed me that we would be having a 6am sunrise service on deck 9 (that's the roof of the ship if you will). Now remember that it is really, really cold in Germany right now, the coldest march for something like 50 years and also keep in mind that it rains 3 out of four days in most of Europe, a few times it has snowed briefly. To set up for this dawn service we would need to start at 5am, so that means getting up around 4:30am. OK - that's enough background for you.
Now the night before Easter sunday there was some disagreement between the ship's director, the person in charge of the event, the person in charge of corporate services and the AV team over having the sunrise service outside on deck 9 or having it inside in the logos lounge. This was not a discussion where all were present, I heard different opinions all day and each person gave me a different answer. In the end, I decided to agree with the ship director and told the other two AV guys not to turn up in the morning, I'd show up in the lounge for the service in there.
The next morning when I got up - lo and behold there were no clouds in the sky, a fine sunny day was in the making - and everyone had said it would be rainy! When Su Kim arrived she decided that we would go ahead with the plan to use deck 9. "Oh no!" I thought, for the other two AV guys would not be here to help carry the stuff. I figured we just wouldn't make it up there in time. That's doubt number 1. Su Kim and Giordanni helped carry the gear upstairs and in less than five minutes it was all up there - so I was proved wrong, but nobody said "I told you so" or anything to that effect. Next we tried to set up the speakers, I didn't have the screws to connect the speakers to the speaker stands and to be honest I had no idea how they connected up - I though to myself "I need Israel here, but he's not - this isn't going to work" - Doubt number 2. Giordanni came up with an idea to simply put the speakers on the roof of the stairwell structure, which worked perfectly - he got up there himself to place them and plug in the cables. So I was wrong again. The next step was to plug in the power (which I had done already but it seemed that power socket wasn't working). Giordanni found one a little further along that worked but it seemed way too far to reach. "It'll never reach" I said - a moment later he had it plugged in with room to spare. Doubt number 3 proved wrong.

Next we began setting up the system - this system that I had never used before - and I started to worry. I could not find the right connections between the amps and the desk. At that moment the ship's director Mike walked out onto the deck and said what a beautiful day it was going to be and said he was wrong when he thought it would be cloudy. Then he asked how it was going and I said "I don't know how to connect this thing up and Israel is asleep because I told him not to come because you said it would be cloudy and not to bother". Mike was not defensive at all, he apologised for misleading me and said he was wrong to doubt. Immediately Giordanni fiddled with the plugs and found the right connectors and got it working. Again he didn't say "see, I told you it would be alright", he just smiled. That's doubt number 4 proved wrong - I hope you are seeing a pattern here.

I have mentioned Giordanni a number of times in this post and that is because whilst he isn't a part of the AV team - actually he is part of internal ministries, the people who design the programs - he helped carry all the equipment up, set up the speakers, the power, the amp connections, helped carry up the microphones and DI boxes and cables, provided a heater for the guitarist's hands and hot water for the singers, provided a laptop and a beamer, mc'd the morning, prayed corporately and sung in the band. He never complained once and always was cheerful and had the best servant heart. In a way his heart attitude was the opposite to mine.

So after we brought up the mics and DIs and cables and I got everything set up there was the issue of song words. There had been several suggestions of using a beamer (data projector) against the wall but my hunch was that it wouldn't work in the sunlight. When Giordanni asked me where the beamer was, I said I decided not to use it because it would only work if if was cloudy (and there would be no point being up on deck nine if it was cloudy). He said that they would have the singing over and done with before the sun rose, which I hadn't thought of yet. I said "Well, it simply can't be done now" and I heard no more about it for a while. Later on he brought up a beamer from somewhere and pointed it at the wall and it was as clear as day, bright and easy to use. A little later on a laptop appeared with all the words on it (I think Su Kim spent quite some time putting them in). Well, "It simply can't be done" was doubt number 5 proved wrong. Throughout the service, a thin band of cloud on the horizon made the sunrise even more beautiful and allowed us to sing songs while the sun rose - God provided the absolute perfect conditions for the service.

It was so good to be out there praising God at sunrise, giving him glory as he revealed a beautiful sunrise before our eyes - a wonderful reminder each day that God's Son Jesus Christ rose from the grave, victorious over sin and death, giving us the hope and promise of life eternal in heaven with him. God had a plan that morning to bless us through the work of a few faithful people - and one grouchy AV worker. This grouchy AV worker wants to be changed from the inside out. I want to have a humble servant attitude like others on the ship and I think the first step for me is admitting that God is smarter than me :)

Thankyou for reading my story and I hope you got something out of it.

Berlin

Today I took a one day trip to Berlin with my parents. We took the ICE train so it only took 3 and a half hours to get there - you don't want to know how long it takes on a normal train. So to fill our 5 precious hours in Berlin between the train arriving and the train leaving for Kiel we decided to take a bus tour of the city. On this tour we could get off the bus at any of the stations and get back on the next bus (they run every fifteen minutes) and while you are on the bus there is an audio commentry available through headphones (or through the speakers if you happen to speak German). But despite this facinating American-voiced tour guide, I have no idea what anything below is - not because I wasn't listening, but because I forgot it all!

So here is an important looking building


And an awesome statue in Charlottenburg Palace

Here is me at checkpoint charlie on the old border between American and Russian territory

And the Brandenburg Gate is the most awsomest of gates leading into the city through the city wall (centuries before the Berlin wall - you know like those city walls that all the cities used to have - Jerusalem for example).

So it was an awesome adventure and it was good to see my parents again.

Update 30th March:
My parents have now left for home on a plane. I saw them breifly for lunch on thursday and we had a big teary goodbye on the ship. I will miss them dearly. I will now need to trust in God fully.

Marine-Ehrenmal Laboe

The war memorial - including the U995 u-boat made for a fantastic weekend in north Germany - even if the wind chill was almost unbearable.

The officer's beds were shared by up to three men on a rotating shift basis - when you get up someone takes your place.

Nord-Ostsee Kanal

Today (Sunday) we went to the Nord-Ostsee Kanal (roughly the north-east sea canal) which is the link between the north sea (surrounding England etc) and the Baltic sea. In the space of about 5 minutes we saw the same number of huge freighters pass through the locks at the east end of the canal.



Pictured below are my room-mate Peter from Bavaria, myself and Mark from Texas whom I met today. He is an engineer and knows everything about ships - so this was an exciting trip for him.

We also went for a walk on the north side of the canal and we found this ship. My guess is it got caught in some sort of time rift in the canal during the Danish occupation of Germany?

Here is one of the many beautiful lighthouses scattered along the side of the canal.

It was a fun day.

Kieler Brauerei

On Saturday night I went with some friends of mine to the Kieler Brauerie - aka the Kiel Brewery. It was everything that foreigners expect Germany to be: Big beer mugs, old wooden tables, orangy lighting, loud music and everyone sings along and some people dance on the tables. It was awesome! Of course this is nothing like what Germany is really like, but hey - I enjoyed it.







Here is a picture of me with my half-litre of local Kielerbeir chugging away.